


Raising Important Questions

by melpos



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, i just really needed momotori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 21:56:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2125983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melpos/pseuds/melpos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Nitori-senpai?"</p><p>"What, Momo?" </p><p>"I have a quick question."</p><p>-----</p><p>Momotarou asks Nitori a simple question that has him questioning things about himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raising Important Questions

"Nitori-senpai?"

"What, Momo?" 

"I have a quick question." 

Nitori turned from his textbook at his messy desk, papers scattered aimlessly, to look at his first-year roommate. He sighed quietly. "What is it?" 

"Have you seen Rin's cleavage?" 

Nitori's pencil dropped from his hand at Momotarou's sudden question about his senpai. 

Nitori remained quiet as Momotarou continued. "A while back, I saw it through his shirt and-and I was just thinking about it." 

Nitori's thoughts flashed to all of the times he saw Rin shirtless, swimming, body dripping with droplets of water as he stepped out of the pool...

"Senpai?" 

Nitori's face flushed as he looked over at Momotarou. He answered quickly, "Yes, I have seen his pectorals." 

"Cleavage, you mean."

"Rin-senpai is not a girl, Momo. Those are his chest muscles." 

"If it's not cleavage, then why did I like it so much?"

Nitori breath caught in his throat and he began to choke. As he was trying to recover, Momotarou spoke again. 

"Do you have cleavage, Senpai?" 

Nitori sighed. "Am I a girl?" 

"I don't know." Momotarou grinned. "I'm sure I can help you figure that out, though." 

Nitori spluttered as Momotarou inched closer, grin still held firmly on his face. 

"N-No!" Nitori yelled as he put his arms out to push Momotarou away. 

Momotarou pulled back with a confused frown. "What's wrong?" 

"I-I," Nitori stuttered as he looked down at the hands in his lap, "I like Rin-senpai, okay Momo?" Nitori blushed. 

Momotarou stared at Nitori with a small pout of confusion. "Okay, Nitori-senpai. I don't know what that has to do with the situation, but thanks for sharing that secret!" 

Nitori closed his eyes and sighed. 

\-----

Various splashes echoed in the area surrounding the pool. A few shouts of encouragement were heard. Nitori found peace in the shouts of his teammates. It helped him feel more comfortable as he himself shouted. 

"Rin-senpai, that was a great time!" Nitori said, praising his upperclassman-teammate. 

Rin stepped out of the pool and shook his hair out. Nitori handed him a towel. "Thanks, Ai. You're up next, yeah?"

Nitori nodded vigorously as he held out the stopwatch for Rin. Rin took it casually as yelling from the other side of the pool erupted. 

"Senpai! Senpai, watch me!" 

Rin turned his head towards the noise and Nitori's followed soon after. Momotarou was standing there as he waved at them. Nitori turned back towards Rin with a small smile. "Ready?" he asked as he pulled his goggles onto his head. 

"Ah..." Rin murmured as he quickly glanced at Momotarou and back to Nitori. He felt slight guilt as he said, "Yeah." 

Nitori began his time trial. Rin stood there casually, waiting for him to finish. He looked over to where Momotarou had been standing to find him gone. Confusion filled his face as he looked around the other side of the pool where various swimmers were scattered in groups. No sign of any red-head in sight. 

"Rin-senpai!" a familiar voice shouted from behind him. It startled him and he jumped and whipped his body around to face the culprit, none other than Momotarou. 

"Momo," he sighed, as he tried to regain himself. "Don't do that." 

Momotarou didn't respond right away and instead shot him an angry glare paired with a pout. 

Rin stared at him, questioningly. "What?" 

Momotarou threw his hands up in frustration. "Why would you do that?" he yelled. 

Rin kept his face the same, impassive confusion. Momotarou continued. 

"You ignored me earlier!"

Rin grew defensive. "No I didn't! I was right here, and I was going to watch you." 

Momotarou's hands flew up once more. "Not you! I wanted Nitori-senpai to watch me! And you just had to keep him to yourself," he grumbled as he crossed his arms across his bare chest. 

Suddenly, Nitori's head flew up from the water and Rin stopped the stopwatch. He called out the time to Nitori, pulled him out of the water, and gave him encouraging words and a pat on the back. 

Nitori padded away with his towel, dripping water in his wake. When Rin decided he was far enough away, he turned towards Momotarou. He let a small smile grace his lips before he asked, "So I'm hogging Nitori?" 

Momotarou groaned. "Yes! Yes, you are. I was going to show him my swimming and all he did was turn to you and start talking and giggling and smiling and bleh." Momotarou's eyes drooped in annoyance as he stuck his tongue out. 

Rin wanted to laugh, but held himself back for Momotarou. He didn't recall Nitori giggling at all during today's practice, but Rin realized Momotarou probably couldn't tell the difference. 

"Well," Rin started, a smile threatening to reach his lips, "I'll try not to 'keep him' to myself." Momotarou nodded vigorously. 

"Yeah! We _share_ things, you know." 

Rin held himself back from laughing again and walked over to Sousuke. 

"Sousuke."

"Yeah." 

“Did you do your time trial yet?” 

“Yeah, I wrote it down on the board.” 

“Hm.” Rin walked over to the board with all of the members’ names and their times next to each one. His eyes trailed down to find Sousuke’s name and time. He grinned and turned back to Sousuke. “Your time is getting a lot faster.” 

Sousuke shrugged. “It’s probably the new training regimen.” 

Rin’s grin widened. “Yeah, the one I came up with." 

Sousuke scoffed, letting a small smile grace his thin lips. "I helped you with more than half of it." 

Rin laughed. "Alright, I'll give you that one." He patted Sousuke on the shoulder and turned, ready to walk away when he saw a surprised Momotarou standing there. His eyes were glazed over as he stared at Sousuke and Rin. A moment later, he bolted out of the pool area. 

\-----

Momotarou ran straight to the locker room to tell Nitori his latest discovery: Rin liked Sousuke. 

It wasn't hard to tell–the way Rin acted with Sousuke was scarily similar to the way Nitori acted with Rin. But, why did Momotarou want to tell Nitori? He realized as he was running towards the locker room that telling Nitori about Rin and Sousuke would break his poor, adorable heart. 

Adorable? What was Momotarou doing? What was he _thinking?_ Nitori was not adorable the way he believed Gou was. 

Nitori was... nice, cute, sweet...

Momotarou covered his face, threw his back against the wall of the locker room, and groaned. 

"... Momo?"

Momotarou's eyes widened as he pulled his hands away from his face and saw Nitori standing right in front of him, looking at him with a face of concern and confusion. 

"Is something wrong?" Nitori asked, tilting his head slightly to the side.

 _You have no idea,_ Momotarou thought grudgingly. 

Instead, he pasted a wide smile on his face and shook his head, just a little too hard. "No! Of course not!" 

"Oh..." Nitori murmured. "I see. Well, have you done your time trial?" 

Momotarou scratched the back of his head nervously, grin still held on his face. "No," he said, a frown beginning to appear. “I don't have anyone to time me.” 

“Oh!” Nitori perked up. “That’s no problem! I’m sure we can find someone to time–” He stopped talking when Momotarou’s hand wrapped around his small wrist. 

Momotarou looked into Nitori’s eyes as he said, “Can you?” 

“I-I,” Nitori stuttered. He looked down bashfully. “I already have Rin-senpai as my partner.”

Momotarou wanted to scream. Instead, he sighed. He wasn’t going to tell Nitori about Sousuke. “I understand.”

Nitori frowned at the redhead’s strange change in attitude. He didn’t like the quietness that was currently replacing Momotarou's usually giddiness. He smiled at him and tried to fix Momotarou’s mood. “Next time we can be partners, okay? For now, let’s go find someone who doesn’t have a partner to pair you up with.” 

Momotarou sighed in agreement and they went back to the pool. 

\-----

Nitori had gone to shower and Momotarou saw this as his chance. 

He dialed a familiar number and heard it ring three times before...

"Momo-chan! What's up? Is Samezuka treating you alright?"

Momotarou only slightly regretted calling. "Hi, Nii-chan. Yeah, it's been fine." 

"Hm?" Seijuurou seemed to read right through him and noticed his strange behavior. "Something's wrong, Momo. What is it?" 

Momotarou looked toward the door where his roommate would soon emerge from. He decided to blurt out, "I think I have a crush on my roommate." 

"Eh? Nitori Aiichirou?" Seijuurou said with a small gasp. 

Momotarou sighed through his nose. "That's the one." He heard a small laugh from the other end. 

"What ever happened to Gou-kun?" 

Momotarou unconsciously shrugged with a frown. "I haven't seen her in... a long time. And she doesn't treat me the way Nitori-senpai treats me. Senpai is so nice and sweet. Always willing to talk..." he muttered, trailing off. Then, after replaying his words in his head, he blushed and added, "A-And stuff." 

"Stuff, eh? Sounds like a dream." Seijuurou laughed. 

"S-Shut up!" Momotarou flared. "Just tell me what to do!" 

"Hmm." Seijuurou pondered after recovering from his laughing. "Do you want to tell him?" 

"Should I?" 

"Should you?"

"... Yes?" 

"Yes!" 

Momotarou let out a small growl. "But he told me he liked Rin-senpai." 

"Whoa, easy there," Seijuurou playfully said. "Acting on feelings of jealousy is not the way to go about a situation." 

Momotarou grumbled. "Yeah, yeah." He looked over at the closed door once again. "Well, anyways. He should be returning soon. I'll talk to you later. And... thanks, I think." 

"Anytime, Momo-chan!" Momotarou pressed to end the call when he heard the loud chuckling of his older brother on the other end. 

He flopped face-first onto the lower bunk. He took in a deep breath, accidentally inhaling Nitori's pillow. He wanted to scream again. 

When the door flew open minutes later, he popped up and squeaked at what was in the doorway. 

Nitori's pale skin gleamed under the droplets of water that stuck to his body. He had a white towel wrapped around his waist and was breathing heavily, as if he had just ran in a marathon. When the towel began to slip and Nitori had to hold it up with one of his hands, he thought he was going to die. 

_Someone is playing a joke on me,_ he thought. 

"Sorry," Nitori breathed out. "After I finished my shower, I looked for my clothes and I couldn't find them anywhere. So I ran back here." 

_Yep, there's the joke._

"I see," Momotarou mumbled as his eyes lingered on Nitori's body. He caught himself and dragged his eyes up to Nitori's. "Here, I'll help you get some clothes!" 

Nitori shook his head and waved a single hand in front of him to match. "It's fine. I can get them." 

Momotarou shrugged and nodded. "Okay. I'll just... face the wall." He turned and did just that. 

Nitori eyed him in confusion for a long moment. They had changed in front of each other before–it was no big deal. But, if it pleased him to do so. He wasn't complaining. 

Momotarou cleared his throat when he heard rustling behind him. "So... How are things with Rin-senpai?" He heard Nitori stumble. 

"They're, uh... fine." 

"Any progress?" he asked, almost bitterly. 

"No... It'll never progress. Rin-senpai likes Yamazaki-senpai." 

Momotarou whipped around as Nitori pulled down his shirt to rest comfortably on his body. He looked at Nitori in disbelief. "What?" he yelled. 

Nitori looked behind him to see if there was something there causing Momotarou's sudden shouting. There wasn't. "What?" he asked. 

"You're... You're not trying anything? You're not gonna try to woo your senpai?" 

Nitori pondered this with a small blush. "Well... No. I just want Rin-senpai to be happy, if I'm being honest. I don't need to 'woo' him for anything." 

Momotarou stared at his senpai blankly. He never thought about that. Did that mean he didn't have to woo Nitori? But, he wanted to. 

"Momo...?" Nitori said after the long pause. He waved his hand in front of Momotarou's face and stared at him. Momotarou broke his trance and recovered quickly. 

"Sorry!" he said quickly. "I was just thinking about things." 

"What things?" Nitori asked. He was curious–Momotarou had been acting different lately. 

"Ah, uh..." Momotarou turned a deep shade of red as he twiddled his thumbs together and looked down. He abruptly stopped as he thought, _Screw it all._

"You. I've been thinking of you." Nitori squeaked, and Momotarou continued. "I think I like you, Senpai." 

Nitori's eyes were wide as he stared at Momotarou. The first words out of his mouth were, "You... think?" 

Momotarou threw him a disappointed frown. "Yes, Nitori-senpai. That's not just something I can decide so easily." 

"You decided easily with Gou-san." 

"That's different." 

"How?" 

Momotarou paused. He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I guess," he began, words stilling for a moment, "because it went beyond the whole looks thing." 

Nitori let out a small breath. 

"I like you for you, Senpai." 

Another breath. 

"Not just your eyes and hair and cuteness. But for your sweetness." 

Nitori looked fixedly on Momotarou. He still said no words, and his face was, surprisingly, blank. 

"Sen... pai?" Momotarou mumbled after the lack of response. 

Nitori's head snapped upwards, just slightly. Momotarou flinched. 

"I... Thank you," Nitori finally said. _Why do I feel like I'm about to be rejected?_ Momotarou thought bitterly. 

"But I _can't_ return–" 

"No!" Momotarou yelled. "No way am I giving up on you, Senpai! I'm a Mikoshiba, and if I know anything about being a Mikoshiba, it's that we never give up on something we care about!" He stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him, leaving a blushing Nitori behind. 

\-----

"Rin."

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure about stealing Nitori's clothes?"

"Of course. Trust me, Sousuke, it's worth it." 

\-----

Momotarou was moping. 

Nitori hadn't talked to him for three days, and it didn't look like he was starting anytime soon. It was surprising how much Nitori could avoid him, even though they lived in the same room. 

"Mikoshiba, your time has slowed," his partner, whose name he couldn't bother to remember, chided. 

Momotarou scoffed. "Tell me when it matters." His partner huffed and went to fill out the times on the board. 

He sighed and sat down on one of the benches lining the walls. He scanned the room for a head of gray hair and found it immediately. 

...Talking to Rin. 

He grumbled and dropped his head in his hand, pouting. He watched as Nitori talked animatedly with Rin, not a single care in the world. Rin nodded along to whatever it was he was saying. 

He perked up just slightly when Nitori glanced over at him, causing his cheeks to stain pink. Rin followed Nitori's gaze and grinned. He patted Nitori's shoulder, grabbing his attention by leaning in slightly to say a few words, causing Nitori to pout; then he walked over to Sousuke. 

Momotarou nearly jumped for joy when he saw Nitori head his way. Instead, he decided to keep a calm demeanor and look down at his nails, feigning disinterest. 

Nitori sat down beside him and Momotarou had to ignore the way his heart thumped. 

"Hey, Momo," Nitori greeted, as if he hadn't been ignoring him for the past three days. Momotarou turned his nose up and away and Nitori sighed. 

"Momo, I'm sorry," Nitori blurted out in a rush. Momotarou turned to look at Nitori after hearing the shaky tone of his voice. He shattered when he saw Nitori's eyes filled with tears. 

"Oh, Senpai, no! Don't cry!" He wrapped his arms around Nitori and Nitori stiffened at the sudden contact. Momotarou nuzzled his head against Nitori's bare shoulder. 

After nuzzling for a few moments, Momotarou realized what he was doing and pulled away. His face grew red and he began to stumble over his words. 

"I didn't–I wasn't–" 

He shut his mouth when Nitori suddenly pulled him into a strong hug. 

"I know, Momo. Thank you." 

Momotarou hesitantly and delicately wrapped his arms around his senpai. He smiled. 

"You're welcome." 

\-----

"So. They made up." 

"Yes! Thanks to me. I strike again with the brilliant plans." 

"Yeah, sure, Rin. Don't go getting all cocky." 

"Psh. No way. I can handle myself, Sousuke." 

"Yeah... But I can't deal with you. What a handful." 

"What was that?" 

"Hm. Nothing. Just be quiet and you'll be fine." 

" _Alright_ , Sousuke."

**Author's Note:**

> this was actually supposed to be a lot shorter but i got carried away whoops
> 
> if i have any typos, please tell me, thanks!
> 
> talk to me at m-elpos.tumblr.com


End file.
